Sofia remained frozen.
For several long seconds, she didn't move.
Her arms were still wrapped around Kaylen, but her mind had gone completely blank.
Slowly, she loosened her embrace and took a small step back. Her pale-blue eyes searched his face desperately, looking for even the slightest hint that this was some cruel joke.
There was none.
He simply looked back at her.
Confused.
Calm.
Almost innocent.
Not because he lacked intelligence, but because everything around him seemed unfamiliar, as though he had awakened in a world he had never seen before.
A cold shiver ran through Sofia's body.
"...Wait here."
The words escaped her almost instinctively.
She stood up so suddenly that the sofa shifted slightly across the polished floor.
A second later, she stopped herself and shook her head.
"No..."
She looked back at him.
"Actually... come with me."
Kaylen lifted his gaze.
"Where are we going?"
"To a doctor."
She tried to smile, but it barely reached her eyes.
"I just want to make sure you're okay."
Kaylen studied her expression.
There was no deception.
Only genuine concern.
After a brief silence, he nodded.
"If that's what you think is best."
---
Less than twenty minutes later, they arrived at the nearest medical center.
The building itself appeared surprisingly modest from the outside, its smooth white walls reflecting the afternoon sunlight. If Kaylen hadn't seen the illuminated medical emblem above the entrance, he might have mistaken it for an office building.
The moment they stepped inside, however, every assumption he had made disappeared.
The entrance doors dissolved soundlessly into the walls before reappearing behind them.
A cool stream of filtered air drifted through the spacious lobby.
The floor beneath his feet looked almost transparent. Beneath the crystal-like surface, thin blue lines pulsed rhythmically, resembling veins carrying light instead of blood.
Floating displays hovered throughout the reception area, projecting information in glowing geometric characters Kaylen couldn't understand.
*I still can't read their language...*
His attention shifted again.
Several small spherical drones floated silently through the hall.
One stopped beside an elderly man sitting in the waiting area. A gentle beam of light swept across his face before the machine emitted a soft chime and continued on its way.
No one reacted.
Apparently, this was completely ordinary.
Kaylen watched everything with quiet fascination.
*Remarkable...*
*No attendants. No servants. Machines perform these duties themselves.*
Nearby, a little girl sat beside her mother, quietly holding her scraped knee.
A hovering medical drone descended in front of her.
Without touching the wound, it projected a thin lattice of blue light over the injured skin.
Within moments, the bleeding stopped.
The torn flesh slowly closed.
The little girl blinked once before smiling brightly.
Her mother thanked the machine as though nothing extraordinary had happened.
*Medicine has advanced beyond anything I could have imagined...*
Sofia barely noticed any of it.
She hurried straight toward the reception desk.
"My friend needs to see a neurologist," she said, unable to hide the urgency in her voice.
The receptionist offered a reassuring smile.
"Patient identification, please."
"Rian."
The woman looked toward Kaylen.
A faint ring of blue light swept across his face.
For a brief second, countless lines of data flickered across a transparent display floating above the counter.
"Identity confirmed."
She tapped the air with two fingers.
"I've notified Dr. Izuko."
"Please have a seat. He'll be here shortly."
True to her words, less than a minute later an elderly man emerged from a nearby corridor.
His silver hair was neatly combed, and despite his age, his posture remained perfectly straight.
A transparent tablet floated beside his wrist, following each of his movements.
"Good afternoon," he greeted them warmly.
"I'm Dr. Izuko."
His attention settled on Kaylen.
"Mr. Rian, I'd like to ask you a few simple questions before we begin."
Kaylen nodded politely.
"I'll answer whatever I can."
The doctor smiled.
"What is today's date?"
Kaylen glanced toward a glowing calendar suspended on the wall.
The symbols meant absolutely nothing to him.
"I don't know."
Without showing surprise, Dr. Izuko made a note.
"I see."
He continued calmly.
"Do you know where you are?"
"A medical facility."
"And which city is this?"
Kaylen hesitated.
"...I don't know."
The doctor nodded again.
Finally, he gestured toward Sofia.
"And who is this young woman?"
Kaylen looked at her.
"We met today."
The words struck Sofia like a knife.
Her shoulders sank.
Dr. Izuko noticed immediately.
His expression grew more thoughtful.
"I understand."
He motioned toward a nearby examination room.
"Mr. Rian, please come with me."
Before following, he turned quietly toward Sofia.
"We're going to perform a comprehensive neurological assessment."
"If the scans reveal no structural abnormalities..."
"...then psychological trauma will become the most likely explanation."
Although she understood his words, they did little to calm her.
She could only nod.
---
The examination chamber looked more like a laboratory than a hospital room.
There was no traditional bed.
Instead, a smooth circular platform occupied the center of the room.
As Kaylen stepped onto it, a metallic ring slowly descended from the ceiling, stopping just above his shoulders.
"Please remain still."
The gentle voice didn't belong to the doctor.
It came from the room itself.
Moments later, pale-blue bands of light began revolving around his body.
Tiny drones, no larger than insects, emerged silently from hidden compartments within the walls.
They circled his head with astonishing precision before positioning themselves near his temples.
Kaylen resisted every instinct telling him to move.
*A battlefield teaches patience.*
*Observe before acting.*
The machines never touched him.
Yet transparent images appeared one after another before Dr. Izuko.
First came his skeletal structure.
Then his muscles.
His organs.
His circulatory system.
Finally...
His brain.
Dozens of glowing pathways lit up across the three-dimensional image, each carrying streams of shifting information that only the doctor seemed capable of understanding.
Dr. Izuko observed quietly, occasionally enlarging specific regions with a movement of his fingers.
Several minutes passed.
Then the blue lights gradually faded.
"The examination is complete."
---
Outside the room, Sofia sat alone in the waiting area.
She couldn't keep her hands still.
Every few seconds she intertwined her fingers, only to separate them again.
The silence gave her mind too much room to wander.
Memories surfaced one after another.
Rian laughing until he nearly fell off his chair during a school festival.
Rian insisting on carrying everyone's shopping bags despite constantly complaining about how heavy they were.
Rian proudly declaring he would beat her at every game they played...
Only to lose almost every time.
A small smile briefly appeared.
Then disappeared.
*What if...*
*Those memories belong only to me now?*
The thought made her chest ache.
The examination room door finally opened.
Dr. Izuko stepped outside carrying a translucent medical report.
"The results are... unusual," he admitted gently.
Sofia immediately stood.
"Is he alright?"
"Physically?"
The doctor nodded.
"Yes."
He projected several brain scans into the air.
"There are no fractures."
"No internal bleeding."
"No signs of neural degeneration."
"The regions responsible for memory formation and storage appear completely healthy."
Sofia stared at the floating images.
"Then... why doesn't he remember anything?"
The doctor folded his hands together.
"Because not every wound leaves a physical scar."
He dismissed the images with a gesture.
"When people experience overwhelming emotional trauma, the brain sometimes protects itself by isolating painful memories."
"It isn't common..."
"But it does happen."
He looked toward the examination room.
"Considering the recent loss of his parents and the absence of any neurological damage, the most probable diagnosis is dissociative retrograde amnesia."
Sofia swallowed hard.
"...Will he recover?"
Dr. Izuko remained honest.
"I can't promise that."
"Some patients recover gradually."
"Others regain fragments over many years."
"And some never recover those memories at all."
"The worst thing anyone can do is pressure him."
"Right now, he needs patience, familiarity, and emotional support."
Sofia lowered her eyes to the report in her hands.
The words blurred together.
"...Rian..."
The examination room door slid open once more.
Kaylen walked into the hallway, adjusting the cuff of his white shirt.
He immediately noticed Sofia's expression.
"What happened?"
She forced herself to meet his eyes.
"The doctor believes..."
"...you've lost your memories."
Kaylen remained outwardly calm.
Inside, however, his thoughts moved with the precision of a battlefield commander.
*Interesting.*
*Their science can examine flesh.*
*It can measure nerves.*
*It can even observe the activity of the brain.*
*But it cannot see the soul.*
No machine in this world could possibly detect that the consciousness standing before them belonged to another man entirely.
His gaze shifted toward Sofia.
She genuinely believed he was Rian.
She wasn't pretending.
She wanted to help him.
That misunderstanding could become his greatest advantage.
*If everyone believes I've lost my memories...*
*No one will question my ignorance.*
*Instead, they'll answer my questions.*
*They'll teach me their language... their customs... their history... believing they're helping me recover.*
A faint sense of relief settled over him.
For the first time since awakening in this unfamiliar world, he possessed something every soldier needed to survive.
A believable disguise.
For now...
He would live as Rian.
Until he uncovered the truth behind this world—
And the mystery hidden within the collapse of the INOX Tower.